My Favourite Less Travelled Club Sandwich with Homebird

The oldies are the goodies, aren’t they? However I like the sound of these birds. Crossing roads rather than oceans is good with me. From the perspective of my food – that is for sure.

Hence why I love to partner with Homebird. Homebird is the ONLY 100% Irish and Bord Bia-approved producer of pre-cooked, sliced chicken & turkey products in Ireland. There is no exception to this in our supermarkets. Chickens from Manor Farm and Turkeys from Hogan’s Farm. This firm favourite of ours has not travelled from the outer reaches of Europe to get to my kids lunch boxes. I like to know what I am eating.

To compliment their not-so-far travelled sliced chicken and turkey, Homebird asked me to create a sandwich as local as their poultry. A sandwich with low food miles.

Food Miles refers to the distance that food products travel from farm to the consumer. A product with “low food miles” has not travelled far & is fresher, of guaranteed quality & has a lower impact on the environment. It just makes sense.

I decided to keep it simple, but a variation on a classic. I have included my favourite local ingredients all sourced or grown close to home in Ireland….just like Homebird.

Club Sandwich Ingredients:

Brown Soda Bread, homemade from Fitzpatrick’s Shop

Butterhead lettuce from my local market

Sliced Tomatoes

Gubbean Smoked Mature Cheddar Cheese

Brady Ham

HomeBird Turkey

Homemade Chutney

I’ve included the chutney recipe below – I made half this quantity but this is it in its purest form as my Mum would make it. She’s not one to do things by halves….unlike her daughter!

Leanmeanmomma’s mommas chutney

12lbs tomatoes

1lb onions

1.5lbs sugar

1/4 oz paprika

pinch cayenne pepper

1 tsp of Black or yellow Mustard seeds

1.5 oz salt

1 pint vinegar

1/4 tsp mixed spice

Method:

Dip the tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds, remove the skins and chop up.

Chop or mince the onions and cook with the tomatoes until a thick pulp is obtained.

Add half the vinegar and the spices and simmer until thick, then add the sugar dissolved in the remaining vinegar and cook until a thick constancy.

Bottle while hot. Use sterilised jars of any shape or size.

Cover when cool.

Assembling the sandwich is childsplay. I like an open sandwich normally. But whatever takes your fancy is fine with me.

Spreading the brown bread with a thick layer of chutney and layering the Homebird roast chicken & Brady Ham is as hard as it gets really. A thin layer of Gubeen Smoked Cheese on top adds the perfect compliment. But don’t forget your greens! A few layers of lettuce all topped with a sweet tomato and that is literally all it takes.

Best enjoyed with a cup of tea. Sunshine is an optional but most welcome extra. Albeit hard to come by these days it seems.

Now where was I? Ah Yes….

Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the mud and cross the road again? Because he was a dirty double-crosser.